The old radios are pre-digital with vacuum tubes. The frequencies are set using a dial, not by changing numbers in a digital display. All the radios, comm, VOR, and ADF were subject to frequency drift and static. The lack of modern radios would be the #1 item requested to be fixed.
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I am having some issues following the Tutorial #2 - per Tutorial, the AFE is supposed to have set the mixture on Engine 3 to Auto Rich, but he didnāt. I did that, but it seems on Ground Power I canāt get the engines started using the procedures outlined in the Tutorial. But if I switched to Battery, I was able to get going. The other thing isā¦ I went ahead on an āimprovisedā routine, but the gyropilot didnāt follow the flight plan as it did in Tutorial 1. I am gonna need some investigating here, as I am sure I am doing SOMETHING wrong, but any and all issues I come up with will be reported on the PMDG forum as thatās the most useful place for them to collect feedback.
By the way, the ridiculous texture issue that was Mugzā big refund circus has already been fixed and is slated for the upcoming patch. Rob at PMDG is being VERY diplomatic and welcoming to everyone - I have to say he has a bit more patience and diplomacy than I can muster sometimes, but he offered to Mugz and to anyone else that PMDGās development team is there to support them and work through any issues with people that are having trouble. Their support is OUTSTANDING as always. They just recently assisted me with the issue of random file corruption that P3D sometimes has that causes the HUD to go blank. At 2 am, my issue was resolved by Chris M from PMDG editing my .xml file and sending it back to me. This is a company that takes support seriously.
I just want to make sure people understand that as with ANY release, there will be things that need to be corrected, but if anything is wrong, I have full confidence in PMDG handling itā¦ So I am gonna go dig around some more! So far, this is a deeply satisfying experience. This aircraft is everything I wanted it to be.
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i have one complaint that really puts me off- its the GPS where none is really appropriate. i get it in a newer aircraft, but not in an older one.
i know the āif you dont want it, dont use itā argument, but let me put it this way:
say you like old cars. theres a certain aesthetic that you appreciate. there are certain considerations you need to take when driving older cars that you dont even think about with a modern oneā¦could be anything- a manual choke, a crashbox tranny, the realities of of cornering with a swing axle suspension and bias ply tiresā¦you get the idea.
now, you get a chance to drive a 65 mustang. beautiful. lovingly restored- but not too restoredā¦this aint a trailer queenā¦
this is what you expect to see:
now, i dont care how much safer it is with the air bag, or more comfortable, or easier to useā¦if i climb into that beauty of a car, and i see this steering wheel from a generic Saturnā¦im out, i dont care how nice the rest isā¦the wrong item can be both jarring and antithetical to the entire experience
now, if its configurable so i can have -by default (cuz i dont want to set this every time i fly)- no GPS, no modern anything, then my opinion would be different. but otherwise, i wish PMDG the best- i sincerely do-, but im not doing this
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Iāll also wait for the market place release. The days of dealing with separate installers and activation codes are over for me. I donāt care how good your stuff is, if itās not on the marketplace Iām not buying. Just my personal preference.
The aircraft they modeled had a GPS. Do you know that there is an option in the tablet that lets you get rid of the GPS altogether? 
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i appended my post, then saw your reply
i wouldnt wait for marketplace. MP makes updates convenient - albeit slow- if you like the developer, and have the opportunity to do so, you should buy direct if possible. its common for any resellers - and i would assume MP is no different - to take a chunk of the revenue with no value added. The figures ive heard cited for various outlets is often as much as 30%
its worse for DCS, where if you buy an aircraft off steam, 30% of the price goes to valve, 30% to EDā¦and the developer who actually did all the work? they get to split up the remaining 40% amongst their team
ive seen no reason to believe that no such skimming occurs in MSFS
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I think the 30% cut (assuming itās that much) for Microsoft is well deserved. Letās not forget that every time you run the sim, there are on going costs incurred by Microsoft to stream all the scenery, weather, traffic and multiplayer data to you. Letās not also forget the free World Update, the Bing data updates, the coming expansion pack and the incredible dedication theyāve shown to the product so far. Greedy add-on developers that donāt feel like supporting the platform that makes it all possible could just as well jack the price on the marketplace by whatever the commissions are. I for one would still buy on the marketplace even if it costs more.
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I am having this same issue, but I havenāt tried switching to batteries yet. Iāll try again later.
I asked about this on their forums a few weeks ago, and Robert said that he wouldāve loved to have modeled them, but to do them right would have meant sending a teammember to some sort of vocational school to learn all about how they work. Itās not as simple as just turning them on and then tuning your frequency, as evidenced just by looking at the things.
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to each their own. i couldve done without the world updates. the expansion pack? you mean the top gun one? the original was overrated garbage, in my book, i dont have much hope for the sequel. but i digress, its your dollar, spend it where you like- if you want microsoft to get a cut, thats cool too. if you prefer to maximize what goes to the devs, thats great as wellā¦its really just something i thought id put out there.
often these people who put together aircraft are small operations , and say it takes them a long time from one release to the next because it takes awhile to create a quality product. thats their entire revenue stream- maybe one aircraft has to pay the wages for a year or two or whatever till the next product rollout. microsoft has plenty of revenue streams, the smaller guys do not, which is why i prefer to buy direct when i can
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The biggest issue with this release is that you CTD when you fly near another DC-6 in multiplayer. In my opinion this is totally unacceptable to release with this issue. I really hope Asobo/PMDG fixes this soon.
How do I move camera to get this view?
Your desire to support the small guys is commendable. But the big guys are what make it all possible. Comparing Microsoft to Valve in this case is not fair. Valve is just a reseller with really no value add. Microsoft continues to improve the platform and allows the small guys to earn a living in the first place. Both should be supported. Like I said, the small guys could just charge more on the marketplace. But even that should not be necessary as the added exposure and publicity would probably lead to higher sales volume and more than make up for the commissions. Like you said, itās my dollar and I wont be buying from outside the marketplace.
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i can respect that. the purpose of my post was intended more to inform and let the consumer make their own purchase decision, rather than to convince others to spend their money the way i choose to spend mine
peace
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Buying direct and cutting Microsoft out of the purchase does not sustain MSFS in the long run. Asobo talked about this being a 10 year project. It wonāt be a 10 year project if Microsoft doesnāt make enough money from it. Also, from my understanding, Microsoft takes about a 30% cut from third party devs. So 3rd party devs keep 70% of the sales, which is quite good.
If you want MSFS to be a 10 year project and you want Microsoft to keep supporting this, a market place purchase is a no brainer, if the product is also available on the MSFS marketplace.
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For moving around the plane and surrounding area, I switch to drone camera view. I never did figure out how to move it well using the keyboard so I have a controller (similar to an Xbox controller) connected just for āflyingā the drone camera.
Looking in the cargo hold at all, let alone looking in it before and after loading cargo, is not something most people would even bother to do or try, which makes it all the more amazing to me that it was modeled.
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Absolutely agree with you. Also, the Microsoft execs will look at the revenue generated from MSFS and determine whether Microsoft will continue to invest in it. Asobo said this is a 10 year project but it can only be a 10 year project if Microsoft continues to invest in it. Microsoft will not invest in MSFS If they arenāt seeing the returns. If we want MSFS to be a 10 year project, if we want to see MSFS be continually improved, Microsoft needs to see the revenue from MSFS, which means they need a decent number of MSFS Marketplace purchases.
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OK. To get back to the DC-6ā¦
Just completed another flight. Everything went smooth as butter. I think I may hold off doing the cold and dark start for a bit until the issues are ironed out - apparently there is a GPS power bug that may affect whether or not localizer works when starting from Cold and Dark. Itās resolved by cycling the GNS430 option in the tablet to NO GPS and then back to GNS430.
But outside of that, I am REALLY happy with this aircraft. Itās gonna take me a WHILE to really dig into all the systems and there is SO much to learn, I am just starting to skim the surface of this. But from everything I have seen so far, this aircraft is EXACTLY what I needed at this point in time. Kinks will be ironed out and we have another airliner! Not the ātraditionalā airliner, but a historic one. This really reminds me of the A2A Constellation on P3D - that one has a virtual flight crew as well. This is just really well-done and I canāt recommend it enough!
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I thought I had found a mistake when I noticed that the pilot map light says āwhiteā on the control but the light is actually red. Then I read this in the Pilot Introduction Manual:
āSome Gauges and Placards are Correct in Being Incorrect
In order to capture the history and true form of the aircraft we surveyed, certain items may seem out of place, but are really true to formā¦ The next items that you may come across are the lighting placards marked as āwhiteā but are actually red.ā
LOL. So I did find a mistakeā¦which is actually a correct mistake! 
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